Multiverse
by Doctor Faustus
Summary: I exist, then my thought exists also. ::Tezuka/Fuji::
1. Bottles of Sunlight

Tennis practice had already started and Fuji Syuusuke was absent.

If it had been anyone else, Tezuka Kunimitsu would not have bothered wasting worrying. The most likely targets included Echizen, who may have been sidetracked into a game of tennis with an intriguing opponent, as well as Momoshiro and Kaidoh who may have been stuck in detention class for getting into a fight, but definitely not Fuji. The rest of the team would _not _risk running laps for no good reason. He did have a reputation as a stern and conscientious team captain to uphold after all. Even so, Tezuka grimaced as he searched for Fuji's cellphone number and clicked the dial button.

The voice that came was softer than usual, but nothing out of the ordinary.

"_Hai………moshi, moshi……?"_

"Fuji? Where are you?"

"…_please...help me...an accident... ...I think I'm the only one alive here…help me…"_

All he heard was the faint sound of crying, and the phone going dead in his hands.

* * *

END CHAPTER

A/N: This is for a very persistent plot bunny that sunk its teeth into my head and latched on to it until I agreed to write any damn thing just so it'd shut up.


	2. Where is Wonderland?

It had fallen into night when the accident occurred. Fortunately, it was already past the timing of the usual rush hour crowd. He wasn't too sure what had happened, but he believed that that the train had derailed violently, careening off the tracks until it crashed into a building and ground to an eventual halt. The interior of the cabin was devastated, folded in on itself, like a metallic butterfly's wings. The plastic seats and the metal panelling of the train had closed in on him, burying his legs beneath them. He couldn't feel anything in them anymore.

The dust was everywhere.

He wondered if the building had any remaining survivors, when the train had crashed as it did. When he came to, he wet his parched lips with his tongue, tasted dried blood and the scattered film of dust and dirt, and made to call out. His arms were inflicted with numerous bloodied cuts and scrapes from the glass windows that had shattered upon contact with the ground. The train had landed sideways and the ceiling had been completely crushed against the building, the sharp angles of metal slicing into the already claustrophobic space of the cabin. There was so little space, and the thing he could scarcely believe, was the dumb silence that yawned loud and wide through the wreckage. It was enough to tell him what he needed to know. From his position, he caught sight of motionless bodies and limbs, and he turned his face away. An insane urge to laugh hysterically rose in him, but it was quelled quickly when he noticed his satchel lying a short distance from him. Picking out his cellphone carefully, he realised that there was no reception. He dialled and redialled, but he didn't seem to be able to contact either Yuuto or Yuri.

It could have been his imagination but the air seemed thinner already.

He curled up on himself, his breathing coming in harsh gasps. He would die in this place. There was no one else alive, and he screamed for all he was worth, but there was no sound that echoed back in return. It was so dark and he couldn't see beyond the small area of light that his cellphone generated, but he didn't dare to use it, just in case, perhaps, that reception would somehow be restored soon.

It was then that his phone rang.

"Fuji. Fuji? Where are you?"

He couldn't help it; he babbled nonsensically to whomever that was speaking to him. The relief that washed over him at hearing another's voice, after the hour of solitude that he had spent, was overwhelming. He wasn't ashamed to admit it, this was one of the rare times when he couldn't stop crying and begging. The fear was driving him out of his mind. He wasn't too sure what he said, only that he pleaded endlessly for help but the other's voice was already breaking into static filled pauses.

And when the phone went dead abruptly, he shocked himself with the violence of his screams.

* * *

END CHAPTER


	3. Grey above the Fields

He was rather tempted to join the team outside, and lead that afternoon's exercises but a quick look outside, showed that the Seigaku's tensai had stil not arrived.

Tezuka sighed resignedly and pressed the redial button again, despite the persistent lack of a signal from the corresponding phone. If all this was some elaborate joke played by Fuji, he swore the other would be running 500 laps before the day's end. Yet, he couldn't quite shake the nagging worry after hearing the strain in Fuji's voice...where on earth was he anyway? Had he even left the house? Even when he called their house telephone, no one picked it up.

Abruptly, a dial tone clicked into place.

It was the longest wait he had to endure. When the call connected at last, judging from the silence from the other end, he almost thought that the phone's battery had died. Pressing the phone closer to his ear, he heard the sound of the other boy crying softly. His fists clenched until the nails dug white crescents into his palms.

"Fuji."

_"...I'm here. Can you hear me?"_

"Where are you? It's already past four." He felt like kicking himself after that response.

_"Past four...? Saa...that's certainly one way to put it. Who are you?"_

"Who am I?" Tezuka repeated, dumbfounded.

"Fuji, did you knock your head against something? This is Tezuka Kunimitsu speaking. What happened to you?"

_"I don't know any Tezuka Kunimitsu. I'm at Amagasaki, the train derailed roughly...2 hours ago? Is there help on the way?"_

"THERE WAS A TRAIN ACCIDENT?"

_"Hai... It's pretty dark here..."_

Tezuka heard the fear in Fuji's wavering voice but he didn't know what to say to comfort the other. He wanted desperately to protect the fragile voice on the other end of the phone, especially as the connection paused with every crackle of the static.

"Don't worry, I'd call for help. Are there any other survivors?"

_"Not as far as I can tell...the bodies aren't moving!"_

Fuji sounded on the verge of hysteria, his voice trembling with repressed laughter. The laughter was cut off abruptly by a spasm of harsh coughing. His voice sounded so dry and parched despite its usual gentle tone that Tezuka couldn't help but believe him. Where Fuji was, there must have been an incredible amount of debris and the dust must have filled the air throughout the compartment. He didn't really think it was the time to ask, but well, Amagasaki was a long distance away from Tokyo.

The coughing subsided.

_"Ne...I don't know you, and I guess I shouldn't be asking for this favour...do you think you could – "_

"I won't hang up on you." Tezuka promised quickly.

A silence, and then a gentle, surprised laughter came over the phone.

_"That's good. I was rather hoping that you wouldn't either. Would you help me to contact my family? It's already so late...I'm sure they're worried as to where I am."_

"Fuji. What are you talking about? It's not even five in the evening."

"..."

"Fuji?"

_"It's past nine on my watch, Tezuka-san. Where are you?"_

* * *

END CHAPTER


	4. Screaming Blue

He heard that it was rather common for people involved in accidents to develop hallucinations. Perhaps the best cause of action would be to humour Fuji until help arrived. He glanced around the tennis locker room, but spotted no other telephone in the vicinity. Should he hang up and call the ambulance and civil defence? Surely the people living in the vicinity of the crash, must have noticed the wreck by now?

"Fuji. Please, listen to me. You're confused, and you are experiencing some mental trauma. This is common in victims who have just suffered from an accident. Stay where you are. I'd go and call for help and – "

_"How did you know my name?"_

"...I'm your tennis captain. We've been in the same team for 3 years. Don't you remember?"

_"Not really... Something is rather strange here. Are you in Japan?"_

"Yes, I am."

_"It clearly states on my cellphone and watch, that it's approximately 9.15 at night. How is that possible?"_

"I have no idea. Maybe...maybe there is a strong magnetic field nearby? Maybe in the force of the collision, electrical gadgets have been rendered useless?"

_"That's not true. I left the university past 8. It should be correct."_

"University?"

_"I'm attending Todai as a third-year medical student. What about you?"_

"...Seigaku. I'm in the third year of junior high."

_"Ah? Tezuka-kun, you're younger than me?"_

"..that's not possible. I'm telling you, it's amnesia."

_"Saa...so the owner of the deep, mature voice, belongs to someone much younger than I am? Alas!"_

He could almost see Fuji's infernal smile in the way he spoke, gentle and humorous at the same time. There was so much he didn't understand. He was alone in the current existence, a life that began to seem as superficial as a thin layer of skin stretched over a wide drum. His mind was unable to tear itself away from the gentle voice on the line, a presence that caused this glitch in his world.

An idea registered, when his eyes caught sight of the unused television set in the corner.

"Seriously, Fuji. What do you remember?"

_"Hmmm...I remember my classmates. I remember my siblings, Yuuto and Yuri. I remember my music lessons, the university itself, oh, and the tennis team I joined!"_

"Well, at least some memories are still approximately the same. Your siblings are called Yuuta and Yumiko. You don't have music lessons, but you do like to listen to good music. You're in junior high with me, and I happen to be your tennis captain."

_"You seem to be talking about a completely different person, Tezuka-kun. My memories are intact. I can remember incidents that occurred since I was a young boy."_

Static abruptly filled the line, throwing both parties into a state of panic.

Tezuka realised that the earlier banter had been an effort on the other boy's part, to keep his tone light. Now that silence had re-established itself, he could hear Fuji's voice cracking from the strain. This could not be true. He tried to imagine a world that existed 5 hours later in time, and a Fuji that was simultaneously real and an impossibility. Suddenly, the reality of the situation hit him. Somewhere, there was a train wreck and Fuji was trapped in the debris, and perhaps he would die alongside the other passengers who had not survived the collision.

_"Hello? Hello? Are you there, Tezuka-kun?"_

_"...why is there no help on the way?"_

_"Ne, I heard of a story..."_

_"We exist in a world, amongst many worlds. Somewhere in this layer of worlds, there is an infinite number of our "self"s, taking every chance and every decision that we could ever have plausibly made. Ne, if you die in this world...do you think you'd still be living in another?"_

_"Saa...I really wonder..."_

The words were getting fainter as the clock ticked by. Seconds felt like minutes, and blended into hours.

Tezuka gazed silently at the clean, unmarred scenery of Amagasaki indicated in the news, and felt like crying.

* * *

END CHAPTER


	5. Sanguinary Death

He awoke from his dreams of death, into the nightmare of his life.

There was dust everywhere in the air and it hurt to breathe, each ragged gasp drying out his lungs further. He tasted grit in his mouth and fought back the urge to cough, knowing that he would wind up breathing even more dust if he did. He was dying. In this moment, there was nothing else he was as certain about. He eased himself onto the ground, involuntarily curling into himself, fingers brushing past his useless legs. The air was thinning. He had calculated the approximate amount of air that would be left, and didn't dare to add the final figures and face the unfortunate answer.

It scared him so badly to think of death and he didn't know why. He shouldn't have had anything to fear. All his life, he had been a model student, a perfect son who was filial to his parents and loyal to his two siblings. He was well-liked in school and he had good friends whom he'd miss. A voice in his head reminded him of the emptiness in his life, a spaced blank between the orderly files of his daily activities, a constant heartache with neither cause nor reason.

_He was dying._

There were things he could have done if he had more time, but somehow, he couldn't really think of any of the activities right now. His mind was more preoccupied digging out dusty memories which he had locked away inside. He remembered the way his friend's face had fallen, when he had declined to go home together with him that day, preferring to stay in the library to prepare for his research paper. It didn't seem that important then, but at the same time, it could have meant the world for a person who chose to hide so many of his real emotions behind a stoic mask and innate pragmatism. He wished there was more time to ask his friend about the wistfulness in his expression, the almost-caress of his hair when he had thought Fuji was asleep at his desk, the warmth of his jacket when the temperatures dipped.

Was it bad if he secretly wished that his friend was with him right now? Fuji blinked back the tears at that idea. He could cry if he wanted to, especially since there was no one around to see him. He just thought it'd be a better idea to die quietly, with nary a tear or smile, so that no one would know that he had been alive in the final moments, and not well, dead upon impact. It would be better to sleep, and die in the intensely vivid dreams that took over him.

He would have liked the phone call to be real. He had awakened from his feverish delirium to find himself even more alone than ever, clutching his cellphone tightly in his aching hand. It wasn't even switched on when he checked. Still, he couldn't help thinking that if there was truly a Tezuka Kunimitsu out there, he had spoken to him, felt the warmth in every careful word that came from him, and known the sound of his tears. He wanted there to be somebody he could rely on, someone who could have accompanied him through the last minutes, and his mind had created that very apparition for him.

Curling closer into himself, he pretended he didn't feel the hot tears that slid from his eyes.

He was dying.

* * *

_He had spotted a cat that with an injured paw, a mangled mess of blood and bone that made him cringe a little. It was limping away from the roadside, stopping every so often to lick its wound, looking at him distrustfully when he stooped down next to it to examine the severity of its wounds. There was nothing to do, but to bring it to the veterinarian clinic nearest to Seigaku. Even so, he had been abysmally late for tennis practice, and he was resigned himself to the notion of running 50 laps before the day's end._

_It was understandable really, how his mind had frozen in shock when Tezuka Kunimitsu strode towards him determinedly and pulled him into an embrace. He could only catch certain phrases over the heady pounding of his heart resounding in his ears, something about how he was glad that Fuji was safe after all, and how worried he had been. He was mortified when he remembered how his body moved on its own volition, his hands tangling in Tezuka's hair and pulling him down demandingly for a kiss. Oh, and he remembered Tezuka flushing to the roots of his hair when Eiji shrieked in consternation, causing everyone on the tennis team to glance in their direction._

_Later, no matter how often Fuji pestered or attempted to bribe Tezuka into telling him why he had been so concerned, his boyfriend merely gave him a stern glance and refused to say a single word. One day, he'd get the secret out from him, but in the meantime, Fuji was content to lean against him and enjoy the warmth of the other boy's arm around his shoulders._

_In that moment, he had everything he ever needed._

* * *

END FINAL CHAPTER

A/N: I referenced the Amagasaki rail crash (25/4/2005) which occured around 9:18 in local time. The train crashed into an apartment building, where one of the carriages hit a parking garage, and as a result took days to remove. Including the driver, 106 people died. Upon reflection, I think I should have used a fictional train and timeline. I really didn't mean any disrespect by this story, and I hope my readers will forgive me.

By the way, does anyone want me to write a story for them? Feel free to drop me a note with a request; phrase, word, plot, situation, etc. and I'd see what I can do. :)


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